The day started earlier than my usual pattern, as I was up, showered and dressed, and in the breakfast room by 9:00 am. In keeping with its more upscale atmosphere, the hotel's breakfast was almost intimidatingly formal. It wasn't a self-serve buffet like every other hotel breakfast I've encountered in Europe. Rather, when I entered someone showed me to a table, where there was a bowl of fruit and some yogurt waiting for me, and then asked me if I wanted coffee and orange juice. When they returned with the beverages they also brought a basket of breads and croissants, and then a plate of various cured meats that I could select from. Finally the cheese cart came around, which had about 10-15 different kinds of cheese, and apparently I was supposed to tell them which and how much I wanted, but I declined the cheese because by that time I felt like a complete pompous ass. I guess the regular clientele at this hotel likes being waited on hand and foot, but I definitely don't. I probably should have gone along with it and made my cheese selections while daintily sipping my coffee and nibbling on a croissant, but I just wasn't up for it. The servers were very nice and professional, but I felt bad that they had to dote on people so attentively. I know I shouldn't feel bad though - it's a job, a better one than many, and I'm sure they appreciate it.
I ate pretty quickly and was out the door before 10:00 am to see Colmar. It was early enough that the streets were still fairly empty, so for the first hour or so I got to see Colmar in the nude, without a swarm of people covering it up. It's definitely a pretty place, with the same Germanic half-timbered buildings that adorn the rest of Alsace, only in a more urban setting. Colmar also has an excellent Gothic cathedral which happened to be the first thing I came to upon leaving my hotel, so I took some time to hang out in its shadow while consulting my guidebook to figure out what I wanted to do and see today.
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| Église Saint-Martin |
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| Église Saint-Martin |
The plan I formulated was to walk around the old town, check out the Petite Venice area, tour the Unterlinden Museum, and browse all of the Christmas markets. So I set out in the direction of Petite Venice and took in the scenery along the way. Colmar has a more cosmopolitan feel than the rest of Alsace, which was kind of a nice contrast after several days of country environs. A few observations struck me in my wandering around Colmar. The first was something I've noticed before in my travels in France, including the other day in Strasbourg. What I've noticed is that French people are just more stylish than the rest of the world. It's a stereotype of French people that I think is well deserved. You also see it in Italy, although in my opinion French style is superior. Folks here just look cool. Man or woman, child, adult, or elderly, most people seem to take pride in their appearance and look their best when they are out in public. It's something I think we would be smart to emulate back home. Ever notice how when you dress well and feel like you look good, you feel better and more confident? Perhaps that is part of the source of French and particularly Italian bravado. I suspect it goes deeper than that, but I think those cultural phenomena are probably related. Then again, one difference between American and European culture that actually gives us Americans an advantage when traveling in Europe is the lower value we tend to place on formality, and our generally more casual manners. People in Europe seem to like and appreciate that difference in us; I have found that almost any cultural ignorance or faux pas is quickly forgiven due to our comparatively lighthearted and casual attitudes. Anyway, as I've said before on this blog, no judgement intended there in either direction, just an observation from my experience.
Okay, I'll get back on track now. I can't remember now what the other observation I was going to talk about was, but I've wasted enough space and time as it is, so I'll move on. I got to Petite Venice, and while it was certainly a nice little area, it was a bit of a let down. I've heard it billed as this super cute and enchanting Venice-like quarter of Colmar, with canals and waterside houses and little boats and the whole shebang. As it turned out, it seemed to consist of just one canal with a bridge over it and some half-timbered houses on each side. Yeah, it was cute and photogenic, but not nearly as captivating as I had been led to believe. Oh well, that tends to happen from time to time when you're traveling on the recommendations of a guidebook. I've found that you always have to take what you read with a grain of salt; what one person's idea of a captivating little quarter of an Alsatian city is may not be the same as your own.
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| Petite Venice |
Having wandered around the old town and the Petite Venice area, it was about 12:00 or 1:00 pm when I started checking out the Christmas markets. I feel like I keep saying this, but in Colmar I found one of the best Christmas markets I have seen yet. I say one, but really Colmar's Christmas market is spread out into several small sub-markets in open areas around the old town. I actually liked it better that way, rather than the usual arrangement in other cities where everything is in one big square. Furthermore, Colmar's market had a wider variety of great food stands, serving Alsatian classics like tarte flambée and choucroute, along with some interesting and tasty varieties of vin chaude, such as one stand that had vin chaude with saffron (which I visited two or three times because it was so good). Finally, and probably most importantly, Colmar's Christmas market had a much greater number and variety of locally-made products: hand crafted ornaments, utensils, and clothing items, locally produced baked goods, cheeses, cured meats, and wines, and all kinds of other great stuff. When I go to a Christmas market, I want to buy something that really represents the place I got it from, and in Colmar there is definitely a great selection of just that kind of thing.
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| Colmar's Christmas Market |
So I browsed the Christmas market, grabbed a few snacks and a few vins chaude, bought a couple of gifts, and then moved on to the Unterlinden Museum. The museum had been mentioned in my guidebook, but what made me decide to pay the museum a visit was the recommendation of my French hippy friend Hugo. The museum is a very well organized collection of historical items, mostly medieval and early renaissance paintings and statuary, from the Alsace region. It also has a cool collection of weapons and armor and a small collection of other miscellaneous items from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. All of that stuff was great, especially considering my interest in European culture and history, but the star of the show was the Isenheim Altarpiece The Isenheim Altarpiece was painted by Matthias Grünewald in the early 16th century for a monastery in Isenheim here in Alsace. To me, its imagery represents a remarkable departure from the conventions of medieval art. Having been painted in the early 16th century, the Isenheim Altarpiece was created in the early years of the Renaissance in continental Europe. Before the Renaissance, art was highly symbolic rather than realistic, and relatively subdued in imagery and color. Matthias Grünewald's altarpiece departs from those conventions, utilizing vibrant, evocative color and imagery, and is concurrently more realistic (in the portrayal of the human form and the representation of three dimensional space) and more imaginative (particularly in the panels depicting the Resurrection of Christ and Saint Anthony being tormented by demons) than was typical of medieval art. It was really cool to see, as much because in the altarpiece I could clearly see the influence of the Renaissance and thereby evidence of the reach of the Renaissance to this particular corner of the world, as because of its individual quality as a piece of art.
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| Unterlinden Museum |
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| Isenheim Alterpiece |
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| Isenheim Alterpiece |
After my tour of the Unterlinden Museum I turned in to my hotel room for a break to rest for a bit and eat some lunch. I had some salad and cookies left over from my picnic the day before, so I ate those for lunch and chilled for a bit. While I was there I took the opportunity to formulate a plan for tomorrow, when I am due to go to Zurich, return my rental car, and check in to my final hotel before flying home on the 24th. I also decided to do some sink laundry in order to make sure I would have clean clothes to wear for the trip home on Christmas Eve. After a while though, as it dawned upon me that I was presently enjoying my last day of real sightseeing on this trip, I decided that I should get out and see a bit more of Colmar before I leave, so I suited up and took one more walk around the old town.
I didn't have a destination or purpose in mind when I set out; my only intent was to get one last carefree walk in before returning home. I grabbed a vin chaude at the closest stand to my hotel and then set off in a random direction. I didn't really find much other than the same cutesy Germanic scenery that exists all over Colmar, but it was nice nonetheless. I stopped at a couple of food stands and got myself some dinner to eat while I walked, enjoyed a couple more vins chaude, and then returned to my hotel and turned in for the night. Since then I've been hanging out in my room, organizing my stuff and preparing for my departure tomorrow, arranging and editing photos, and typing up this blog post. I feel good; ready to go home, but happy with the great trip I've had and looking forward to the next one.
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